The tragedy of Dafydd (4)

In March 1264 the alliance of Prince Dafydd and the Lord Edward kicked into gear. Civil war had broken out in England, and the conflict spilled over into the Welsh March. Edward arrived in the marches in February, where he deprived the Bohuns of their castles of Hay, Huntingdon and Brecon and handed them over to Roger Mortimer. He then turned about and attempted to relieve Gloucester, where the rebel barons had forced entry to the town and laid siege to the castle. John Giffard and another man allegedly tricked the porters by disguising themselves as Welsh merchants, only to throw off their outfits as soon as the gates were opened.

Three days before Edward’s first attempt to save Gloucester, Prince Dafydd and William de Zouche, the justice of Chester, poured over the border with an army of men of Cheshire and Shropshire and attacked the lands of Robert de Ferrers in Staffordshire. Ferrers, the Earl of Derby and at this point a Montfortian, had just sacked Worcester. The timing of the attack on his estates in Staffordshire is suspicously coincidental with Edward’s march, and suggests it was an attempt to draw Ferrers away from helping his allies at Gloucester. Dafydd and his allies stormed Stafford and seized Chartley Castle (pictured), one of the jewels in Ferrers’s crown. They also plundered churches and burnt the town of Stone, to the north of Stafford. On 2 March they attacked Stafford again, but were repulsed by another group of Marchers, probably led by Ralph Basset of Drayton.

It seems Dafydd did enough to distract Ferrers long enough for Edward to fix up a truce with the rebel leaders at Gloucester, which he promptly broke as soon as their backs were turned. Ferrers was not best pleased:

‘The earl Robert Ferrers, when he came hither, he was well-nigh mad for wrath that they had made agreement. He smote his steed with his spur, as did all his company. And turned himself for wrath again, as quick as he might hasten’ (Robert of Gloucester).

Later in the year, Ferrers got his opportunity for revenge. In May 1264 Edward and his father, Henry III, were captured at the Battles of Lewes. This left Ferrers free to deal with Prince Dafydd and his Marcher allies, who were encamped near the Cheshire border. In late October the earl raised an army twenty thousand strong - surely an exaggeration - and advanced to meet the army raised against him and led by Dafydd, Zouche and James Audley.

 The engagement that followed was a disaster for Dafydd: his men broke ranks and fled without striking a blow, and over a hundred killed in the rout. It was a Pyrhhic victory for Ferrers. A few weeks later he was lured to London by Simon de Montfort on false pretences, and then thrown into prison. Simon had his beady eye on Edward’s lordship of Chester, as did Ferrers. Now he had Edward and Ferrers in custody, Simon could grab it for himself.

After his defeat at Chester, Dafydd slips off the radar for a while. He was technically still Edward’s ally, but isn’t known to have played any part in the final defeat of Simon de Montfort at Evesham in 1265. Possibly he was laying low somewhere, living off royal wages and waiting for events to turn in his favour. Shortly before Evesham, his brother Prince Llywelyn had agreed to an alliance with Simon at Pipton. It was a rather one-sided alliance, in which Llywelyn agreed to do something if Simon gave him everything, including the title Prince of Wales.

King Henry, dragged about as Simon’s captive, was compelled to put his seal to a document that went against his entire Welsh policy for the past thirty years. Llywelyn probably knew full well that his ally was doomed, and stayed well clear of the impending catastrophe. After the rebel army was obliterated Edward sent him one of Simon’s severed feet as a present.